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You are welcome to disagree.

But I think early mornings are the friendliest time to be out and about.

For one thing, there just aren’t that many of us outdoors shortly after dawn. But the dog-walkers, runners and cyclists doing their thing right after sunup almost always strike me as a congenial lot. We’re all getting a fresh start.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

It’s as if we belong to a secret club whose membership learned long ago that bright and early is the way to go.

People outside at that time tend to be focused on the day to …

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S-R Media, The Spokesman-Review and Spokesman.com are happy to assist you. Contact Customer Service by email
or call 800-338-8801

You are welcome to disagree.

But I think early mornings are the friendliest time to be out and about.

For one thing, there just aren’t that many of us outdoors shortly after dawn. But the dog-walkers, runners and cyclists doing their thing right after sunup almost always strike me as a congenial lot. We’re all getting a fresh start.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

It’s as if we belong to a secret club whose membership learned long ago that bright and early is the way to go.

People outside at that time tend to be focused on the day to come. If things are going to go wrong, that trend probably has not emerged yet.

I wave. You wave.

We can be a bit more relaxed about strangers.

“That’s a good dog.”

“Thanks.”

You don’t have to change your expression to feel as though you are smiling.

I’m not saying people in Spokane are not friendly at other times of the day. But it’s different later on. The volume has been turned up, the stillness and quiet gone. Some people are angry, some drivers drunk.

June is the month with the longest days of the year. So the first-thing- in-the-morning crew can head out the door really early.

I’m not altogether sure why. But the slanting first light is the best light.

Closet space: “When I was an administrator at Coeur d’Alene High School, we had full length student lockers back to back,” wrote Emmett Arndt. “On the last day of school, after the students left, we would open all the lockers and collect books, et cetera, left behind. We opened one locker and found that the adjoining walls of four, back-to-back, lockers had been removed and there was ‘wall to wall’ floor carpet, a stool, and a small light fixture suspended from the top. We wondered how ‘The Apartment’ might have served the occupant(s).”

Today’s Slice question: How often do people seek medical advice from members of their extended family who happen to be doctors, nurses or whatever?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Sue Swanson says her young adult daughter’s boyfriend just might be the one because, as he puts it, he has been reading The Slice “his whole life.”